Several hours ago, an Android 4.3 system dump was leaked for the Nexus 4. As it turns out, even though the bootloader and the radios weren't included, the system dump is totally bootable. I'm running it right now. If you want to try it out, it's easy to do so, but be prepared to have your bootloader unlocked and flash some zips via a custom recovery. If you don't know what any of this means, I suggest you get familiarized with Android flashing first.

The Story (read this first)

At first, it turned out that restoring this backup straight in TWRP 2.5+ worked.

Then gmillz (others may have done this too) created a flashable zip that you can flash in any custom recovery. This zip is pre-rooted. I flashed this.

There's now a second version of the flashable zip, also by gmillz, that is deodexed and is running an insecure kernel (meaning you can do adb root). I flashed the non-deodexed one in step 3 and haven't flashed this one but I don't see a downside to flashing this one instead.

You do not lose data when flashing either of these - they install right on top of whatever you have running on your Nexus 4 (not Nexus 7, not Nexus 10, not Nexus XYZ - Nexus 4 only).

Some people, myself included, couldn't actually get root to work even though the zip was pre-rooted. Some people did, but some of us didn't. Don't fret though, after trying a few things, a working root is achieved by flashing another zip by Chainfire specifically crafted for Android 4.3.

Bam, you're done - say hello to Android 4.3.

A Few New Things

Ron will be ripping up the Android 4.3 leak later on today in great detail, but so far I've noticed these things:

Persistent notifications for apps running in the background. This is new and kind of annoying - apps that run in the background and didn't used to show up in the notification area are now there. For example, my favorite Network Monitor Mini Pro, which has a setting to not show an icon in the notification, now started to in 4.3. Google Wallet was doing the same.There is, however, an easy solution to this - go to the app's info page and uncheck Show Notifications. Problem solved. See below for some screenshots. Never mind, this doesn't stick - the notification comes back after rebooting, even with Show Notifications unchecked.

Google Keep is now included as a system app. See below for a screenshot.

OpenGLES 3.0 support seems to be in there (thanks, marcusmaximus04): /lib/libGLESv3.so.

I'm sure there are more under-the-hood improvements (hopefully, some Wi-Fi and BT fixes at a minimum) and features I'm too tired right now to hunt down. Once again, I'll let Ron comb through everything.

Download and Install

So now that you've gotten a little taste of 4.3, let's flash it onto your own Nexus 4. And let's go ahead and make sure it's rooted as well.

Note: In order to flash this, you don't actually need to be rooted - all you need is an unlocked bootloader which allows flashing a custom recovery. Also, as I mentioned before, you don't lose your data.

Make sure your bootloader is unlocked.

Flash your favorite recovery. In my case, I flashed TWRP because CWM had some issues with a later step. Get TWRP here.

Make a nandroid backup of your current ROM from within the recovery. Just do it. If something goes wrong, you will have an easy way back.

Download either zip file from this xda post. Read The Story above for more info on these. I'd go with the deodexed one with an insecure kernel at this point.

Hook up your Nexus 4 to your computer via USB and make sure you have the Android SDK installed and adb working.

Reboot the Nexus 4 into recovery (easiest way is adb reboot recovery).

Open up a command prompt on your computer and type in adb sideload followed by the path to the zip you've downloaded in step 4. Alternatively, you could have copied the zip to your phone first and then flashed it using the conventional Install/flash zip recovery menu. adb sideload is a bit easier and more elegant in my opinion, but it's up to you.

Watch the ROM slowly but surely get flashed.

Reboot.

Now check for root by starting Titanium Backup. A root checker application may actually tell you're rooted, but TB said it wasn't for me and some others, for example. Neither did ROM Manager. If root really works for you at this point, you're done. If not, proceed to the next step.

If you're having problem with root, flash SuperSU from this post. I've seen people complain that doing so via CWM doesn't work, but flashing through TWRP and selecting Fix Superuser Permissions at the end does the trick. It's certainly done it for me and everyone who I saw try.

What i'd like to know is if the new GPU acceleration features showcased at I/O are included with 4.3 or are coming later down the road. No good way to test this on such powerful devices as the Nexus 4, I suppose?

This can not be tested that easily because it's done on the GPU level.

The question on hand is: Does it feel faster?

dnlkbox

Honestly it feels no different at all..

Dominic Powell

According to the talk at I/O he is referencing I imagine the easiest way to do it without the program they used to showcase the differences, would be to use a high speed/slow motion camera and compare the loading properties of a complex app (they used g+ in the talk) and see if multiple areas are animated simultaneously or in a row. The difference in the talk cut the drawing calls from the GPU from 84 to 33. Which although is more than 100% better may not be easy yo realize because these operations occur rapidly. I expect the play store with its high number of GPU calls will be the easiest place to notice the difference.

Michael Panzer

yes! I want to see it on my Nexus 10 on the play store or g+ app... It's really working there.

Jordan Thoms

Actually, that won't help since that drawing is happening into a buffer, which is then placed onto the screen all at once. However, you should be able to find the debugging program they used in the talk and check with that...

Dominic Powell

During the talk they showed how android api level 17 loads each aspect of the Google+ to render iton your screen. They then showed the improvement from "a future mythical version of Android" which they alluded to as api level 18 and showed the differences in ultra slow motion. It seems like something you could detect without use of their app they used to profile the differences. an app that requires a ton of individual draw calls should make it noticeable in a side by side comparison of loading between 4.2.2 and 4.3

Jordan Thoms

Yeah, you could tell by looking at scrolling performance in Google+. My point is that the difference in the drawing commands is not going to be visible even with a high speed camera, because the frame is drawn completely into a buffer, and then the result is sent to the screen all at one time. So the only visible effect of the change is a better framerate.

That said, I'm 99% sure based on what they said that the drawing improvements are in 4.3

Thanks for that link. It's nice to see some improvement, but it's hard to gauge how much of that is under-the-hood Android stuff and how much is standard driver/kernel optimizations that come with device updates. I'm hopeful, though.

Ashutos Don Jain

When the leak update or leak for galaxy nexus is coming ? I can't wait ?

I saw someone say they flashed it on top of PA and it worked, but I'm not sure how well it would work until you wipe data, or if it would work for you at all. You can back up and flash away, then restore if it doesn't work.

Lucas93

Aight, will just flash stock while downloading this to be on the safe side.. Thanks again :D

Steve Rodrigue

For the persistent notifications, it's easier to long-press the notifications. Then you are prompted to go the "App info" directly to uncheck the "Show notifications" box. It works for all notifications in 4.2 (or what it introduced in 4.1... Can't remember).

That's one way, indeed. What also works is if the app is running in the task switcher, right clicking on that. Or long-pressing the app in the app drawer and going to app info there. There are many ways. Thanks for the note though.

Confirmed. And the animations are like nothing I've seen before. Pretty. There are 3 suggestions at a time, and it seems to know who I call most. The animation pops new suggestions up with every keystroke, it's really quite neat.

The persistent notification is probably a new rule under the latter APIs that has been recently enforced by changing the behaviour of older apps. I noticed the latest build of AdBlock explains that the only way to stop it from showing in the notification tray whilst running was to disable its notifications via the app settings.

keanyiap

I heard the color is better than 4.2.2..anyone can confirm that??

dnlkbox

The colour is certainly different.. Better imo!

Ryan O’Neill

Can you explain what you mean?

Carlos Rodríguez

More saturated than before.

Remember that one of the complains of the Nexus 4 was the washed out colors.

It looks a lot better now. On 4.2.2 we had a little imporvement, now we have another one.

What... The Nexus 4 is a Nexus. Hence the name.
Also this isn't official, so it doesn't really count

Mastermind26

I think the point was that ALL "nexi" were supposed to be "FIRST" on the list for updates....on paper, there should be reason why other devices should not be updated as the N4.

Mike Harris

Considering the way this was leaked, we really have no way of knowing that the entire line of Nexuses won't be updated simultaneously.

Mastermind26

Understood.

CasperTFG

Please Lord. Let it be the Nexus 10 first...because, it's like the best. And it's more important than the other family members.

Mike Harris

That. Plus, it's the one Nexus that I own. =)

Carlos

Nexus 4 isn't nexus. It's nexus 4. Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a nexus.

dnlkbox

Er no? If the Nexus 4 isn't a Nexus, then following the same login, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and is therefore not a Nexus.

Your argument is invalid.

Ivan Myring

I didn't say it was nexus I said it was A NEXUS

Tony Sarju

lolwat? You are hella confused.

Carlos

Galaxy Nexus was released before Nexus 4!
Also Galaxy Nexus is the first device which got ICS and hardware soft keys.. and you guys N4 lovers "fgots" say that Nexus 44 "the copy of Nexus" is the original and should have rights to use Nexus name! xD
C'moon get a life. You don't have to reply to my post, I just said that N4 got again newer version of Android before Galaxy Nexus! -_-
I have always hated the N4!

Tony Sarju

What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Carlos

Justbfcoff

Mastermind26

Someone was do one sooner or later. LOL

Mike Harris

I thought the consensus was that it was Nexuses?

Mastermind26

News to me. :(
(I never thought it mattered really. LOL)

Tony Sarju

It's a proper name, a noun. So It's Nexus's

Mastermind26

fine.
Nexusssssssssss
it is! Haha

mechapathy

As someone who likes to keep a clean status bar, the persistent notifications thing is gonna bother the hell out of me. Hopefully this isn't final software, and the "show notifications" preference will stick in the OTA.

Paul_Werner

I totally agree with you. I'm keeping away just because of this. I'll have to deal with it if 4.3 OTA has it too but I'm hoping that there's enough outcry to make them change that. I can't even see common users liking their notification bar filled up with notifications they can't swipe away

Why don't we just urge developers to create persistent notifications that don't show up in the status bar? I've seen this implemented a few times, but I can't remember where exactly. I know the "Connected as a media device" system notification has a greyish background behind the icon so it doesn't show up in the status bar. I'm not sure if non-system apps can do this, but maybe with root access it's possible.

Josh

+9000 to this. it will irk the hell out of me as well.

Andrew

Hopefully this will be easy for custom ROMs to disable.

Tony

This is good. It means badly written apps that stay in the background sucking battery are immediately visible. It *should* be impossible for an app to continue running with no indication that it is doing so.

mechapathy

That's all well and good. But give someone who has a deeper understanding than the average user the ability to effectively disable that behavior.

Ivan Myring

Has this worked for anyone with CWM. I cant be bothered messing about with installing TWRP and then going back to CWM (So my backups work)
Also, would Franco M-3 work with this or not?
And what radio does it come with?

Yep, since I posted I really had a good ponder at the change list and it is such an under-rated update and will be very vital to my user experience, I have touch issues on the N4, this update is said to fix that! :D I was just expecting KLP.

Dan

Off Topic, but thanks for the tip on Network Monitor Mini Pro. Would love to see a post on "Android Police Pack" that lists apps like this one. Thanks.

Matthew Fry

They've done a series called What We Use (you can see it on the side bar), but I recall being sad that Artem never did one.

MrNinjaPanda

So about those persistent notifications - right now I have about 7 apps running in the background, would that mean that I would have my notification bar cluttered with 7 different persistent notifications?

Carlos Rodríguez

No, you can disable persistent notifications in the App-info setting. The problem is that it doesn't survive a reboot. So, you'll have to do the procedure again.

See, it's not all background apps, it's only some. I'm not sure what the distinction is. Light Flow and Network Monitor Mini are some of these.

andy_o

AFAIK Android for quite a while has required to have persistent notifications for "foreground" running apps, which means those which tell Android not to close it when RAM runs out. Which is why Tasker and other apps like VoIP ones tell you they require the icon for better stability. I'm not sure what would be different in 4.3 though. Wallet should not do it.

That's not entirely accurate. The OS is less likely to kill the app if it's low on RAM if it's got a notification icon showing, but it was never a forced requirement that would persist such an icon without the ability to remove it. That's the change in 4.3 - it seems to now force the icon to be shown on foreground apps.

I don't know where you got those stats - the battery hit from that should be fairly minimal.

Matthew Fry

BetterBatteryStats & GSAM Battery Monitor. It killed my S3 like no other. But it may be different on different handsets. For some reason CarrierIQ would eat into my battery too but my wife's S3 never had the problem.

kh5

You've got 4.3 on your S3? The new scanning option wasn't there before.

Matthew Fry

In 4.1.2 it's called "Google's Location Service" and does the same thing whenever your wifi is on.

The camera no longer has an animation for rotation from portrait to landscape. It just changes. There's a slight delay, so it is still noticeable (and still not as fluid as 4.1 or below), but it's definitely less jarring, and possibly faster since the animation probably took more time than it needed.

This change did not occur for those who installed the camera onto 4.2 beforehand from the GPE leak. At least not on the Nexus 4.

Pedro Majano

I think a lot of people are complaining about few updates, but honestly, being able to see the music in my car stereo, makes this update enough for me. :') all the other stuff is just a way of saying how good android has gotten, you see IOS for example, their BIG updates from 6 to 7 are just "Make Up" as of 4.2.2 to 4.3 is a small but big improvement, now just picture that if android updates take time, well android is almost perfect the way it is now, but it really makes a difference. I believe 5.0 will take some time and I really encourage the android time to take their time, so that they bring something significant, different, breakthroughs so that we all avoid saying, "is that it?", "is this all", "how is this different from 4.x?". So go on, take your time, I'm happy with 4.2, HAPPIER with 4.3 and not dying to get 5.0 but yeah I think it will be something...

I agree with you... But you do know the iTrolls will be using it in their arguments against us... I can already hear it... You guy weren't getting updates to your phones to begin with, now Google isn't giving you guys updates at all... Android is trash... At least we get something... :) I kind of rather get the little updates here and there, just so I don't need to hear that sht...

I only got root fixed by flashing Chainfire's SU. TWRP prompted me to fix root only then, after SuperSU flashing.

Laurent

Location reporting no more available in my region! Bummer! What is wrong with u Google ?

JonJJon

So still no updates to the camera app with the naff Alarms UI :(, not looking forward to this persistent notification thing, I don't want lightflow in my view all the time, why did they think that was a good idea again?

Justin Swanson

maybe to remind users they have specific apps running in the background? However... you would think you'd be able to disable it... Maybe you will be able to when it's officially released.

JonJJon

Hopefully, tbh the only app I think I have that will show up is LightFlow but a "hide this app's persistent notification" toggle would be nice

I installed it, but when I try to play a video using a program that is not the stock gallery (MX Player, MoboPlayer, VLC...) it either force closes or I just hear the video, but I can't see anything. Why is that? How can I fix it?